Long term evolution (LTE) is a high performance radio interface for cellular mobile communication systems. LTE boasts of performance peak rates of at least 100 Mbps for the downlink transmissions, 50 Mbps for the uplink transmissions, and radio access network round trip times less than 10 ms. It has the advantage of high throughput, low latency, and a simple architecture with low operating costs.
The allocation of resources, such as scheduling and transmit power, in a radio network has a significant impact on the performance of a wireless communication system. Scheduling pertains to the allocation of a time and frequency unit to a mobile station. Power allocation pertains to setting transmit power levels in an efficient manner. The allocation of the transmit power determines the data rate of transmission to a scheduled mobile station. The manner in which these resources are allocated affects the overall throughput and transmission rates that can be achieved.
Conventional resource allocation techniques are not suitable for a LTE network. The conventional techniques typically schedule in units that contain a signal subcarrier and one time slot. The basic radio resource in LTE is a Physical Resource Block (PRB) which contains a group of subcarriers and time slots. User scheduling in LTE networks is performed through the allocation of a PRB rather than through the allocation of a single subcarrier and time slot. This makes user scheduling in a LTE network more complex and computationally burdensome.
Additionally, existing resource allocation techniques typically focus on maximizing the total network throughput or system capacity. The notion of fairness or fair resource allocation among users is often not considered which can result in sacrificing the transmission of other users. Accordingly, there is a need for a more efficient resource allocation.